Who We Are

Red Rabbit Books publishes serious, hard hitting works of fiction and narrative nonfiction by established contemporary authors. Unsolicited manuscripts will not be accepted.

Coming Soon

A Boy Named Red: A True Crime Story
By Richard Rashke

Available on November 13, 2023

In March 1960, two students at Divine Word Seminary in East Troy discovered their 15-year-old classmate, Kenneth “Red” Rudnitski, hanging from the clothes hook in a bathroom stall. He was barefoot and dressed in his pajamas.

Walworth County botched its one-hour investigation into Red’s death. Although the manner, mode, and circumstances were highly suspicious, Walworth County ruled a suicide. The County Sheriff did not request an autopsy. He did not advise the county prosecutor to open a suspicious death investigation.

There was a sexual predator at the seminary high school. The religious superiors responsible for the education and the physical and mental health of the students knew he was a serial criminal. Nonetheless, they conspired to protect him. No one was ever charged or convicted of a crime.

Did Red commit suicide?
If so, why?
Or was he murdered?

Richard Rashke answers those questions in his new book A Boy Named ‘Red”: A True Crime Story. He details the events leading up to Red’s death, the subsequent cover ups, and the trauma endured by Red’s fellow seminary students.

The book calls on the Wisconsin State Attorney General to admit to the injustice and to reopen the case of Kenneth Red Rudnitski.

“I recommend this searingly honest book to anyone with authority over the young. To anyone seeking to resolve certain abuses of power in any dysfunctional organization. To anyone who believes telling even the darkest story can lead to some justice, liberation, and healing. It is told with the passion of a prosecuting attorney to right wrongs left dangling in secrecy. He reveals shocking twists and turns. He is “willing to march into hell” for the sake of this Boy Named Red.” – Edward Vargo, Former Divine Word Priest and Educator.

RICHARD RASHKE is the author of several controversial nonfiction books, including The Killing of Karen Silkwood, Escape From Sobibor, and Useful Enemies. His books and plays have been translated into thirteen languages and have been the subject of movies for screen and television. His award-winning play, Dear Esther, has been produced every year since its premiere at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1998. It was performed in Polish in the “Sobibor Musem” at the Sobibor death camp site in Poland in 2023.